Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic communication, and more specifically to techniques for selecting recipients in electronic communication.
Description of the Related Art
A communication address, such as an email or chat address, is generally associated with a communication method, i.e., protocol. For example, a chat address is associated with a chat protocol such as YMSG, and an email address is associated with an email address such as SMTP. Therefore, a single recipient, such as a person, may have multiple different addresses, ore for each protocol that the person uses. Addresses that identify the same person in different protocols are often different, because different protocols often have different addressing syntax. For example, a person named Jennie Garth may have the email address “garth@yahoo.com” and the chat address “Jennie Garth.”
Existing communication interfaces, such as Microsoft® Outlook™, and Yahoo® Messenger, generally expect users to enter the protocol-specific address when sending a message. Furthermore, existing interfaces generally accept addresses for a single communication method. A user typically chooses the communication method to be used for sending a message, and selects the appropriate interface, e.g., an email client or email service web page for email, or an instant messenger client or web page for chat. The user then enters the protocol-specific address of the intended recipient of the communication, and enters the content for the communication, along with protocol-specific values, such as a subject for an email message.
In these existing interfaces, the user is generally burdened with determining the appropriate or most effective communication protocol for communicating with an intended recipient, with selecting the appropriate user interface, with remembering the protocol-specific address of the intended recipient, and with entering the protocol-specific address in the user interface. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a user interface that manages protocol addresses for the user, and allows a user to compose a message using the appropriate protocol address.